While 12 teams start preparing for the playoffs today, the Dolphins prepare to map out their future for the next 2-4 years as they officially begin their coaching search.

Owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland will hold their own State of the Union meeting this morning at the Dolphins training facility in Davie, and then meet with interim coach Todd Bowles early in the afternoon to discuss the end of the season and interview Bowles for the head coaching job.

And then the fun really begins, as the Dolphins “flip over rocks,” to use Ireland’s favorite term, to find a new head coach. The process could be quick and painless and end with a new coach by the end of the week. More likely, the Dolphins will take their time, interview at least one coach currently working for a playoff team and take 2-3 weeks before finding their guy. The only real deadline for the Dolphins to have a coach in place is Jan. 22, the first day of the Senior Bowl when teams can start scouting college players.

Bowles will address the media this morning, and the players will be available in the locker room, both for the last time this season. A few quick notes before the coaching search kicks into high gear:

1. Sprained MCL for Davone Bess.

But it could have been a lot worse – a torn ACL, as many initially feared when Bess took a hit directly on the knee from Bart Scott in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win.

Bess was carted off the sideline with a giant ice pack on his left knee, and left the locker room on crutches. But with just a sprained MCL, as a league source confirmed late Sunday night, Bess is looking at a few weeks of rest instead of 6-9 months of rehab.

Bess, the Dolphins’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for his work with disadvantaged youth off the field, dodged a bullet with this injury.

2. Coin flip for Miami and Carolina.

Will the Dolphins pick eighth or ninth in April’s NFL Draft? At this point, it’s a 50-50 proposition, and we won’t know the result until the end of February.

The Dolphins, Panthers and Bills each finished with 6-10 records. The first tiebreaker is strength of schedule – NOT head-to-head – and the Dolphins and Panthers each have opponents’ winning percentage of .504, while the Bills are at .520. So Carolina and Miami both pick ahead of Buffalo.

The second tiebreaker is conference record, but only if the two teams play in the same conference. Since Miami and Carolina are in different conferences, the tie will be broken by a coin flip, which will occur at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis in late February. The winner will pick eighth, the loser will pick ninth.

The coin toss shouldn’t matter too much, as the Panthers won’t be in the market for Robert Griffin III in the draft. But if the Dolphins want to trade up for RG3, the eighth pick is slightly better ammunition than the ninth pick.

The Dolphins and Panthers aren’t the only teams leaving their draft pick up to chance. Kansas City and Seattle are both 7-9 with a strength of schedule of .512.

Here is the order of the top-20 draft picks (with record, strength of schedule):

Finally, yesterday brought final clarity to the Dolphins’ 2012 schedule. We already knew 14 of the 16 opponents, but now the schedule is finalized with the Dolphins officially finishing in third place in the AFC East (finishing higher than Buffalo because of the better head-to-head record).

The Dolphins place the AFC East, AFC South and NFC West next year, plus the third place teams in the AFC North and West.

The full list of Dolphins 2012 opponents (dates and times to be set in April):